Guides

Getting more out of the systems you already run.

Plain notes from someone who ran a shop, not a software pitch. Mostly about the gaps between your ERP, your books, and the work nobody designed a system for, and what to do about them.

Start here

Not sure which of these is you? Start with these.

Where to start
Run the AI readiness assessment
Free, and you run it yourself. It walks through how your operation runs today and shows you which of the work is worth improving, which isn't, and what each one would be worth in your own numbers.
Where to start
You can't hire your way out of this one
The role's been open for months and the work still has to get done. What to stop asking a person to do, and how to tell a useful consultant from a salesman.
Where to start
Software built for how you actually run
Three levels, and you probably need less built than you think. How to tell which one you are, and what to ask anybody you hire.
Where to start
Running on QuickBooks and spreadsheets: what to automate first
You're not ready for a full ERP, and you might not need one. What's worth automating first when the spreadsheets are the system.
AI, honestly

What AI genuinely does in a manufacturing operation, and where the label is doing more work than the software.

AI implementation
Making AI actually useful for your operation
Everybody says "use AI." Nobody says how. Set up around how you work, loaded with your own knowledge, your data staying in your hands.
AI implementation
An AI knowledge base that knows your business
Free AI knows nothing about you. Load your procedures, specs, and know-how so everyone draws the same right answer, and it doesn't retire when your people do.
AI reality
Will AI replace CNC machinists?
The short answer is no, and it isn't wishful thinking. Where the AI label on machining software is doing more work than the software, and where AI genuinely changes the job.
AI reality
Is ChatGPT safe for company data?
It depends almost entirely on which account it goes into. What to do about prints under NDA and controlled work, and why a ban makes the exposure worse.
Getting reports out of your ERP

Same wall in every system: the data is in there, and getting a straight daily read out of it is somebody's afternoon.

ERP augmentation
JobBOSS custom reports, without living in the report writer
When the answer to every question is "export it to Excel and figure it out", what's actually possible, and how to stop living in spreadsheets.
ERP augmentation
E2 Shop System reporting, when the numbers sit in silos
E2 / Shoptech runs the shop fine, but the numbers live in module silos. Closing the gap without ripping anything out.
ERP augmentation
Global Shop Solutions reports and the report-writer wall
You've got the data. Getting a straight, daily read out of it shouldn't take a power user and an afternoon.
ERP augmentation
Epicor Kinetic reports, and the one you actually want
Powerful, and underused. Why BAQs and dashboards still don't hand you a clean daily read, and how to get one.
ERP augmentation
M1 ERP reporting, when the canned reports run out of road
ECI M1 runs the shop, but the answers stop where the built-in reports do. A clean read without living in Crystal or Excel.
ERP augmentation
Fulcrum reporting, and the part most people stop short of
Fulcrum publishes more of itself than almost any manufacturing system, and most of it can write back. Nearly everyone uses the read half.
ERP augmentation
Cetec reporting, when everything is in there somewhere
The data isn't missing. One straight answer just means four screens and a spreadsheet, every time somebody asks.
ERP augmentation
Odoo reporting, when the answer lives in four modules
Odoo will let you at your data. The trouble is the question that needs manufacturing, purchasing, stock and the books at once.
ERP augmentation
ERPNext reporting without waiting on one person
Nothing is hiding your data. Every answer past the built in ones just needs somebody technical, and that is usually one person.
ERP augmentation
Made2Manage reporting, and getting a clean read off it
An aging install and a report writer that fights you. How to get the numbers out without replacing the ERP.
Connecting systems together

The expensive problems live between two systems, because no vendor owns the space between their product and somebody else's.

Integration
JobBOSS QuickBooks integration, past the standard sync
The standard sync handles invoices. Here's the work that lives in the gap the standard sync doesn't touch.
Integration
Which ERPs let you get your data out
Fourteen systems checked against what each vendor publishes. One of them publishes nothing at all.
Integration
Getting your data out of JobBOSS
Everything you keyed in is in there. Getting a number you can use on a Tuesday is the actual work.
Operating intelligence
The manufacturing KPI dashboard nobody opens
Which six numbers actually get used, why a read that arrives beats one you have to go and open, and the part underneath that has to be right first.
The gaps nobody designed a system for

Work that happens around your systems rather than inside them, which is why nothing catches it when it goes wrong.

Operating gaps
Software for machine builders and industrial machinery
Every machine is a one-off and your ERP wants finalized data. That mismatch is where the shadow spreadsheet comes from.
Operating gaps
Vendor PO acknowledgments that slip through
A changed due date nobody caught, an order that was never confirmed. A quiet watcher that flags only the exceptions.
Operating gaps
Customer orders, keyed in by hand
POs arrive as PDFs and get re-typed into the ERP. Read each one, check it against the quote, draft the order, and flag what doesn't match.
Where to start
You can't fill the office roles. The paperwork doesn't care.
What the back office actually does all day, which parts of it a machine can do, which parts still need a person, and where to start if you're going to start somewhere.
AI
You bought the accounts. Nobody uses them.
Five reasons AI stalls in a small manufacturing business, why none of them are the people who wouldn't use it, and what has to happen for it to stick.
Where to start
Zapier is a good tool. It's the wrong one for your orders.
Where a drag-and-drop automation tool is exactly right, where it quietly stops being right, and three questions that tell you which side of the line your paperwork is on.
Where to start
AI is a good reader. It's a bad accountant.
Which parts of the paperwork you can hand to AI, which parts have to be ordinary code that does the same thing every time, and how to tell the difference before you spend money on either one.
Operating gaps
Custom quoting software, specced to how you actually quote
Most of a quoting tool is the same everywhere. The part that isn't is your pricing logic, and that has to be yours, whether you run machining, swiss, fabrication, dies, molds, finishing or assembly.
Operating gaps
CNC machining quoting software, and where the hours go
Quote turnaround caps how much work you can win. Where the hours actually go, which lines get missed, and why guessing cycle times is the wrong thing to automate.
Operating gaps
Sheet metal quoting software, and where fab quotes leak
Fabrication quoting is a yield problem before it is a labor problem. What belongs in the quote, and the secondary labor that never makes it onto the sheet.
Operating gaps
Laser cutting quoting software, and your real hourly cost
Cut length and pierce count are the easy part. The hard part is knowing what an hour on that machine actually costs you, gas and consumables included.
Operating gaps
Waterjet quoting software, and the edge quality nobody specifies
The same part, same material, same thickness, honestly quoted at very different prices. What separates them is how good the edge has to be, and nobody writes it down.
Operating gaps
Wire EDM cost per hour, and how to work out your own
Length of cut times depth of cut times your rate. The method's the same everywhere. The number is yours. Including the two things most often left out.
Operating gaps
First article inspection and ballooning drawings
Numbering every characteristic and typing it into a form is an afternoon, and a revision means doing it again. What automates cleanly, and what has to stay with your inspector.
Operating gaps
Why your job profitability numbers aren't trusted
The report is rarely the problem. The number is only as good as the labor capture underneath it, and capture is what fails.
Operating gaps
The retiring machinist problem
Thirty years of how-to walking out the door. Capturing setups, tool lists, and run notes tied to the part, before it's gone.
Local
Local
Manufacturing software in West Michigan
Built by someone an hour up the road who ran a shop for a decade. Drivable, and fluent in how a shop actually runs.
Contact

Got one of these gaps?

First call's free. About 30 minutes, a straight conversation about how your operation runs and where it's leaking, not a demo. If there's something worth building, I'll say so; if there isn't, I'll say that too.

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